


broken leather wings

by eraserheadbaby



Category: Persona 2
Genre: Depression, Drunkenness, Existential Angst, F/F, Gen, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 15:56:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19704637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eraserheadbaby/pseuds/eraserheadbaby
Summary: Anna believes that what she wants is for the world to end. But at times like this, it seems that what she truly aches for is for the world to go on without her.





	broken leather wings

Another touch of the glass' rim against her chapped lips, another shot of alcohol hurled down her burnt throat. The cheap vodka dissipates into the swamp inside her stomach, while her entire body protests to the intrusion. Sirens explode against her skull and her eyes hurt so much that it feels like their nerves could push the eyeballs out of their sockets.

Anna has lost count of how many nights she's spent like this. At this point, Club Zodiac has pretty much become her second home. Or maybe her only home- there was no particle of familiarity in the air of her own room anymore. Pictures of her, perfectly illustrating her confidence in face and body language alike, now look like pathetic drawings through her tired eyes. A collection of trophies that once seemed to count down until the introduction of something as grand as an Olympics medal, now is nothing but a bunch of old metal plunged in dust.

Most importantly, Anna needs Zodiac because she needs booze. It was exactly what she had been seeking today (and yesterday and the day before that and) - that sweet oblivion of being drunk. Being able to drown her brain, load it with liquor until it chokes and shuts down.

Being able to do nothing but wait for everything to end.

But tonight, even alcohol had no mercy to spare for her. All it granted her was an unbearable dizziness and a terrible stomach ache. Everything she'd drunk threatened to come out. Because it wasn't enough to be tortured by her mind, now her body joined in the fun too.

Just like it's been doing every day, ever since Anna came face to face with that damn car.

The club, of course, has no sympathy for the devil either. The music blasts with all the gentleness of a screwdriver straight through the ears, while the lights alternate between bright colors at painful speed. Anna shuts her eyes as tight as she can. 

Through the generic bass, a voice emerges. A syrupy voice, salted by concern.

"Sister, why are you here again?!"

Anna opens her eyes, even though she doesn't need to. Noriko's features are twisted by the heavy hands of disappointment. Like every time she sees Anna.

Blue neon sweeps on her face, and this time the worry looks almost monstrous. As powerful as fear. Anna must truly look like shit, huh.

"...What happened to you?! Please, let me take you outside!"

Something makes her agree, leave that dirty leather couch that she has stapled herself upon. Maybe it's the booze sloshing in her stomach and making it hard to sit down. Maybe she just needs to get this over with, so she can have one less annoyance in her plate.

Maybe it's that flicker of hope within her, one that's set alight every time Noriko comes to see her. It's part of a doubled edged sword, alongside her need to watch everything burn. A flame of hope can't be used to set fire to the world- Anna can't hold on to both of the edges. She also can't realize which one of the forces is the honest one, and which one specializes in treachery.

When she stands up, Noriko supports her by holding her waist and draping her arms over her shoulders. A wave of nausea comes like the shock of a lightning, and Anna has to shut her eyes again.

Her eyes remain closed all the way out. And so, Anna doesn't realize they're outside until she feels her face touch the autumn breeze and her feet stomp on asphalt, and not on the familiar (draining, nasty, tiring) carpet of the club. Sometimes, like this moment, she imagines her feet running across a synthetic track with the swagger of a champion.

"...Sister, can you open your eyes?", Noriko asks. Anna can't say no.

But when she finally opens her eyes, the lightheadedness becomes a rain of daggers pouring down her entire body. Cold sweat throttles her, just as her windpipe starts convulsing. Before she knows it, she has pushed Noriko aside and has ran towards a corner of a dark alley beside the club, where her stomach violently empties itself.

Anna then finds herself staring at her own vomit. It was all pretty much gastric acid- had she even eaten anything today?

What was she doing here?

"Here" isn't the alley, or the club. "Here" is everywhere. "Here" is this world she was born in.

Once, Anna was convinced she'd found a purpose in running. She ran, ran, ran until she couldn't anymore and then ran again. The world, one merry day, took that away from her. What else did that prove, other than the fact that life itself has no place for her? Why was she born, why do others expect her to talk, walk, eat, sleep, live when whatever she did had its meaning erased in the blink of an eye?

She stares at the drawn-on walls of the alley, while her nose gives in to the foul smell of puke and trash. When Noriko speaks up again, her voice seems way too pure to be echoing against these grimy bricks.

"...You'll go back inside, won't you?...And you'll be here tomorrow night."

There it is. Noriko has finally understood what a lost cause Anna was. Now she'll leave, and Anna can go back to counting the moments, days, months until the nightmare ends.

"...Then I'll be here tomorrow too."

Uttering her words, waving an axe straight into Anna's heart, killing with kindness, Noriko looks back with defiance. Anna, on her part, can't convince her face to emote in any way.

It hurts.

It hurts to be dragged by the arms by both hope and demise, dragged until she can't do nothing but tear apart.

It hurts to think of Noriko, who is still so full of life, wasting her nights to come clean up Anna's mess. It hurts that some part of Anna wants this. Just because Anna has accepted her rejection from the world, it doesn't mean that Noriko has to walk into Hell's jaws with her.

Anna believes that what she wants is for the world to end. But at times like this, it seems that what she truly aches for is for the world to go on without her.

"Go home", Anna finally mutters, "and don't come here again."

Noriko sports an angry expression and her eyes are misty, a prelude to her tears. Before they can be shed in front of Anna, she runs down the empty street, away from the club.

Anna has her own path to follow. She drags her busted legs to the entrance of the club, ready to waste yet another night on the leather couch.

**Author's Note:**

> persona 2 is a great game that deserves good fics but this is the best i could do at this point sorry :(


End file.
